Decent workstation for photography €1-2K

steoc

Hi i am often hanging out in the photography forum. I am at the moment working off a laptop connected to a separate monitor. I am looking for a better set up which can manage my needs. I havent a clue about self build. But i feel i will get more bang for my buck than buying one off the shelf.

Any help/advice would be welcome.
Thanks
Steoc

1. What is your budget? €1-2k

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Photo editing Running photoshop CS6 and Lightroom 4. General internet viewing and downloading.

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? Yes

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? No

5. Do you need a monitor? I have an NEC PA271w-bk but would like to get a second monitor to use along side this.

5a. If yes, what size do you need. 24"-27"

5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future? NEC is 2560 x 1440

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? Keyboard/Wireless Card/Speakers

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? No i dont think so?

8. How can you pay? Credit Card/Laser?/Cash

9. When are you purchasing? I am ready to start

10. If you need help building it, where are you based ? Wexford

Serephucus

Item|Price
ASRock B75M-ITX, Sockel 1155, ITX|€73.49
Samsung SSD 840 500GB SATA 6Gb/s|€279.99
Intel Core i5-3470 Box, LGA1155|€172.00
BitFenix Prodigy Mini-ITX Gehäuse - weiß, ohne Netzteil|€69.99
be quiet! STRAIGHT POWER BQT E9-400W 80+Gold|€63.68
MS Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit SB-Version Englisch|€89.00
ZOTAC Geforce GTX 650 1GB|€94.48
16GB-Kit Corsair ValueSelect PC3-10667U CL9-9-9-24|€93.53
ASUS PB278Q|€517.91
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - Intel/AMD|€29.39
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€1502.45

Fast, small, quiet, and comes with a 27" 2560x1440 calibrated monitor. I left out keyboard, mouse, and speakers, as they're more personal. Another monitor option is the U2713HM from Dell.

ScumLord

Do you have a calibrator for your monitor? Should add one to the list if you don't.

http://spyder.datacolor.com/

An SSD should be considered essential but you'll want a seperate hard drive for storage. A raid array would be preferable so you're talking about at least two hard drives. I've been saved by my array, one drive failed on me and I was able to replace it without loosing any of my work.

Serephucus

Good point. A 2TB Red drive along with a 3TB drive to backup the other two.

steoc

Hi
Thanks for the very quick reply.
Yeah back up and storage will be a big factor for me.
Can i get a system that i can plug in/out hard drives as they are full and then store the full ones away? If that makes any sense?
I like the sound of it being fast,quiet and small.
I dont mind holding off on the extra monitor and putting the money in for storage. I can always add a second monitor later.

steoc

Forgot to mention i have a color munki for calibrating the monitor.

Serephucus

Well the case listed there can hold six drives (not including the SSD) so you could always throw a few more in. Why would you want to take them out though?

How much storage are you thinking of / what stuff will it be? Depending on those answers, you might be better served by a small home server instead.

uncle_sam_ie

Why not Windows 8? It's cheaper http://www.hardwareversand.de/OEM-Software/62942/Microsoft+Windows+8+64-Bit+%28SB-Version%29.article

steoc

Serephucus wrote: »

Well the case listed there can hold six drives (not including the SSD) so you could always throw a few more in. Why would you want to take them out though?

How much storage are you thinking of / what stuff will it be? Depending on those answers, you might be better served by a small home server instead.

Wow it could hold upto six drives.
Thats great.
I will want to keep the drives as they fill up with my photos as back ups.
Would i be better off using external harddrives for that

Serephucus

Up to you on that one really. I'd probably go internal though. No point paying extra for an enclosure for a hard drive that you're not going to use that much, and being slowed down by a USB connection.